David Broder must have gone mad in his old age. Why invest in a war that destroys stuff, kills people, and destabilizes our country as opposed to spending that same money to rebuild our infrastructure, send more kids to college, build super fast trains coast to coast, and invest in alternative energy. It is this mentality that diminishes our stature around the world. As the recent attempted bombing of our airplanes show, no country can stand alone given our connectivity and dependency.
President Obama does not need to keep us in a constant state of war to be re-elected. He needs to lay the foundation for an independent growing middleclass instead of passing policies that consistently look out for the well being of corporations first. He needs to get around the media that allows the corporatists and those that misinform to dictate the spin on beneficial policies for the middleclass.
President Obama’s policies in many cases are less than sound because of the corporate interest and misinformation that then criticizes the policy that they themselves polluted. It is imperative that we educate the middleclass.
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My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies
So, David Broder has concerns! The economic situation in America is presenting a "daunting situation" that could prevent President Barack Obama from "storm[ing] back to win a second term in 2012." (It also presents a "daunting situation" for millions of Americans who aren’t the president, but just go with David here.) How can Obama "harness the forces that might spur new growth?" Sure, there is "the power of the business cycle," but "economists struggle to analyze this," so Broder’s not going to linger too long on whatever might be done in that arena. Instead, has anyone considered maybe — I don’t know — bombing the daylights out of Iran?
What else might affect the economy? The answer is obvious, but its implications are frightening. War and peace influence the economy.
Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.
Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran’s ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.
Wow. Jeezy creezy. Deep breath. Where to begin with this? Here’s a fun fact: for much of the economic downturn, we were heavily involved in two wars. I read about this somewhere, I think! As it turns out, they aren’t deficit neutral. Whats more, they are tremendously effective resource drainers. And the first resource that’s been drained is our military personnel, who have spent the past decade on long, backbreaking deployments. It makes you wonder: who are we going to "accelerate preparations for war" with exactly? It’s not like we have an infinite supply of troops upon which to draw.
And I don’t know if David Broder is up on current events, many of which have been ably reported on in a newspaper called The Washington Post, but the new and emerging threat that’s drawing our attention and resources is coming from Yemen — a troubled state where the latest, greatest al Qaeda faction is testing its operational abilities and our defenses.
But let’s say that we have some massive number of troops available to deploy or that Obama can convince the "opposition party" to drop our efforts in Afghanistan to have this great new war against an opponent with a substantially better state-run military than we’ve faced in Iraq and Afghanistan. What is the economic benefit? As Matt Yglesias points out, not much:
David Broder: War With Iran Will Save Economy, Obama Presidency